Withnail: All right, this is the plan. We get in there and get wrecked. Then we'll eat a pork pie. Then we drop a couple of Surmontil 50s each; means we'll miss out Monday but come up smiling Tuesday morning.
24 hr Train-powered run on Gaping Gill was a success; inital probing into Avalanche inlet was made, bivi'ing next to Bar pot was perfectly pleasent until waking at dawn to a snow dusted dale, with the olive oil frozen solid.

Amazing trip to Croatia, organised by our excellent hosts Darko Baksic, Igor Jelenic, Teo Barisic and the Zadar caving club. Arrived in a blizzard, which thwarted our underground camp + exploration plans, but got to see an amazing variety of Croatian caves across the limestone backbone.
The Sibenik club report of being gatecrashed by the english at their Speleo Camp.

A double-caving birthday was enjoyed at Bullpot Farm, taking in the usual Easegill classics as well as a slightly more off-the-beaten-track trudge to Cape Kennedy, admiring the impressive and very manly formations, while remembering the navigation to and fro the 88-pitch.

Birthday cake and Slovene pancakes enjoyed in the farm, with a Guitar / Fiddle Jazz Duo concert in front of the fire...

The threat of actually doing some serious caving was sufficent to put off the majority of ICCC cavers with complaints of course-work deadlines and relatives' birthdays. This left a hardened core to sweep up to the NPC and dive down King Pot in sodden conditions for a brilliant 10.5 hour trip to the bottom of the last pitch. Truly astounding cave!

Massive JH-Titan exchange trip on the Saturday with 12 cavers in total. Late start of ~circa 3pm, but everyone out by a relatively early 11pm. Less motivation on the Sunday - people with cars had gone home, James KP + Jan did a little rigging practice and the rest walked up Mam Tor or fettled in the hut with uni work!

A long overdue return to the farm! Excitement fettling in Easegill on Saturday, smearing blood around a shaft and checking out the foam on the ceiling. Sunday saw a main party go to Aygill while an insane duo set off to King to swap a snickers bar and a maillon for a 20m rope and a broken Casio watch.

There will come a time during the next week when you will ask yourself:
"Just what have I done in these last few days before Christmas?"
The answer: Rat Hole <-> Stream (GG), County Pot <-> Lancaster Hole (EG), Lost Johns', Ireby Fell (ladders), Notts I (Anderson's route + Acrobat series?), Swinstow / Valley Ent

Last trip of the Autumn term was a stonker, horrifically wet weekend trip to Yorkshire with killer roads, a leaking roof in the NPC and flooded caves. But we endured and had a damn nice time. Boxhead, Rumbling, Lost Johns' & Rowten all successfully probed, an ULSA birthday party gatecrashed and vast quantities of cake consumed.

The second driver, alas, fell ill and so we diverted from the glory of Yorkshire to the homely comforts of the Mendips, and broke into the Belfry. Deep frost during the night, was pretty scary on the roads with the moonlight bouncing off the white bearded fields! Due to the cold we investigated Easterwater Caverns on the Saturday, a cave only a 5 minute stumble from the enormous fire, and found it to be a nice mixture of crawls, clambers and climbs.
Sunday found us with some Charterhouse keys thanks to the kind hut warden, and a splendid photogenic session down GB and a 'sporting' (to the point of drowning) trip down Longwood in furries.
Maybe there are some caves in the 'Dip other than Swildons...

The Orpheus hut was as lovely as ever, Kenny being quite the welcoming hut warden. Fires were stoked, cheese-on-toast was prepared with the cattle-prod assisted stove and we were all tucked up against the wind and rain outside. Of course, eventually we would have to go out and go caving... Shed's car had spewed all of its oil into the ground overnight so we had to quickly replan trips and regroup in the minibus. Giants & Oxlow were succesfully probed, whereas Maskhill was called off due to a bit of a log jam in the entrance series! Saturday night saw an amazing Chilli with the secret ingredient of dark chocolate, and an evening in front of the fire including new research into indoor carbide displays. Sunday was less faffy, and saw trips down Oxlow, Maskhill & Eldon's Hole (which really was just a hole), and a pleasent return to London.